Texas man sentenced to more than 15 years for cocaine trafficking

Date: Jan. 20, 2026

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Madison, WS – Chadwick M. Elgersma, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Marcos Gonzalez, Los Fresnos, Texas, was sentenced January 8, 2026, by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 188 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute cocaine. The prison term will be followed by 10 years of supervised release. Gonzalez pled guilty to this charge on October 21, 2025.

Between December 2023 and June 2024, Gonzalez served as the leader of a conspiracy that trafficked more than thirty kilograms of cocaine from the southern border to Dane County, Wisconsin. As part of the conspiracy, Gonzalez arranged for the cocaine to be smuggled from Mexico into southeast Texas. From there, Gonzalez arranged for a courier to transport the cocaine to coconspirator Ernesto R. Abeyta in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

Judge Peterson explained that he imposed a significant sentence because of the “very aggravated” nature of Gonzalez’s offense. Judge Peterson noted that Gonzalez not only trafficked a large quantity of cocaine, but he also had a clear connection to a large criminal enterprise in Mexico. Judge Peterson also expressed concern that Gonzalez was “a committed recidivist,” since this was his third federal drug conspiracy conviction. Gonzalez previously served twenty-two years in federal prison for a 1995 conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine conviction. In 2003, while serving that sentence, Gonzalez was convicted for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute marijuana, for trying to smuggle marijuana into a federal prison.

“Gonzalez is a career drug trafficker who leveraged his Mexican cartel connections to sell pounds of cocaine across the United States, including here in Dane County,” said Acting United States Attorney Elgersma. “Today’s sentence not only ensures significant prison time for the leader of a drug organization, but it also sends a message that the United States Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners are committed to using every legal tool available to disrupt and dismantle terrorist organizations that profit from addiction and violence. I commend everyone who played a role in bringing Gonzalez to justice.”

On November 6, 2025, Judge Peterson sentenced coconspirator Ernesto R. Abeyta to nine years in federal prison for his role in the cocaine trafficking operation.

The charge against Gonzalez was the result of an investigation conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation, the Dane County Sherriff’s Office, Dane County Narcotics Task Force, Madison Police Department, Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, and Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant U.S. Attorney William M. Levins prosecuted the case.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of federal law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.